Weibo: Galaxy S8 will cost more to make, but maintain its price

With all the new features headed into the Galaxy S8, we would expect that Samsung was going to find it difficult to keep costs down for manufacturing. According to tech analyst Bing Yuzhou on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo, we may see the median cost per unit go up thanks to a new feature.

What’s this feature? Two screens? Two cameras? Gold-plated everything? Nope, a 256GB storage disk. The Galaxy S8 may be the first widely available smartphone Samsung has created with such a storage option and it goes up toe-to-toe with Apple’s recent storage bash for its iPhones.

So, what’s the impact of this move among many others we’ve been talking about for the S8? It seems that next year’s spring flagship will rack a bill of manufacture 28 percent more expensive than the Galaxy S7. Estimates have put the current flagship’s cost at around $255, so we’d be talking about a $70 push. And yet, Bing wrote that Samsung will keep device pricing stable (most carriers offered the Galaxy S7 at around $649).

Is Samsung willing to take a bite out of its margins to keep customers fat and happy and away from being burnt by the Note 7 crisis? Is there a completely different motivating factor going on for such a drive? There’s plenty yet to be told in this story. Stay tuned.